Tuesday, 11 March 2008

Progress in the garden is slowly gathering pace as the photos of plants in my last post show. Birds are also going around in pairs on the look out for nesting sites or in the case of Blue Tits in my garden – a Nestbox! Soon all this looking will be over and the serious business of next building will begin. So, do we still have interest in our Nestbox – oh yes!

The same roosting Blue Tit has used our Nestbox, every night, since the beginning of November last year. As you can see above it is tucked away cozy asleep as I write this. Every now and again I hear it through the speakers tapping the walls or floor with its beak as it moves around a little. It no longer has wood shavings in the box as we removed them two weekends ago at the same time we gave the inside a good sand to remove the damp marks after the roof leak we had. It was also suggested, in one of my comments, that I should remove the wood shavings now as it would help remove any parasites.

Before looking at the video compilation below from our Nestbox I should explain what you are about to see – three different blue tits and a tail of a fourth!

The tiny intro clip is our rooster chasing away an unexpected guest! The chase went around the garden and through a neighbour’s tree. The next clip shows a bit of colour in the box. The male of our day time visiting pair is next seen pecking at the entrance hole and the wet wood shavings. You can see why we cleaned out the box – yes parasites could live there.

The cleaned Nestbox is next seen with the rooster realising something had changed before finally settling into the usual corner for the night. Then back to colour, on a brighter morning, you can see the male of the daytime pair back also looking a bit confused. He then went back to pecking at the entrance hole once again. I wonder where the female is or if it was her that was chased off by the rooster.

Okay, next enter the latest blue tit that I have seen in our Nestbox. Now why do I think this was new visitor? Well, I am now able to spot a new bird species in my garden usually by the apprehensive way they sit a while and observe the feeders and activity in my garden before going anywhere near the food. Well this was what I thought of the bird in the last two clips of my compilation. It behaved quite differently.

Usually the birds walk around the whole box stretching their heads up and looking at the entrance hole. They will also go up and down to the entrance hole too. This bird came in and went straight to the wall under the entrance hole. It sat and it sat. It moved its head a little. I turned up the volume to hear if it called to another bird or it was being called to. No noise came from the speakers. No tapping on the wood. No jumping up and down from the entrance. It did eventually move from this wall but it didn’t explore the box as other birds do. Therefore, I am pretty certain that this is another bird – silently interested perhaps? Mm… hard to tell, see what you think.

Oh... one final thing before you hit the play button. There was no sound at all in the backgound with these clips so I have added some background music. Now, I know this may not be to everyone's taste so you may want to turn down the volume on your speakers. I enjoy adding music and I do it to make the clips more entertaining to watch.

This will be my second year with a camera in a Nestbox so I have an idea of what is to come – should we get a nest being built. However, I will try not to tell what will happen next so if this is the first time you have seen nesting ‘up close’ it won’t spoil the experience for you. Perhaps different pairs will behave differently too - I am new to this so we will have to wait and see. However, I will respond to comments on posts.

Finally, this post is in response to a comment from Jane, who is in the South of England, asking if the birds in my garden were nesting yet. Last year I noticed that our Nestbox birds were two weeks behind those in England, Jane. I will keep and eye out for the blackbirds collecting nesting material too – but I think it is a bit early yet here in Scotland.

The photo above was taken on March 11th 2008. The video above was taken in our Camera Nestbox during March 2008.

11 comments:

Shirl, thanks for the moment. My 14 year old daughter just snuggled close to me so we could watch your hedgehog video on my laptop. She loves hedgehogs, I'd love to find someplace where she could see a live one, will have to check around at the zoo or something.

I know when I was a child in Germany my Aunt had them in the garden and she'd feed them. I didn't even know what they were then as we didn't have them here in America.

Thanks Shirl. I was getting worried about your little rooster! Great video, it's amazing to see what goes on in the box. I saw a little wren building a nest on Sunday, and the long tailed tits and blackbirds are definitely building as well. It's very mild in our garden, cos we have very high thick hedges surrounding us. Almost a micro-climate. The birds have obviously come to our garden on holiday! I look forward to following your little birds progress. Jane

Melanie – Oh wow how lovely! I have come across many sites here with info, photos and video (I think). I also know of a few carers. I have no idea when hedgehogs will come out of hibernation here so at some point I will contact them to find out. When I do I will post some links too. Of course I will then have to set up a camera outside once again to catch them on film :-D

Carol – You are very welcome! If we do get a pair nesting just wait until you see the nest building :-D

Robin – It really is and I do hope I can share as much action is possible! However there has to be a few ‘exercises’ performed in my Nestbox before we will know for sure if they will build a nest. Oh… and I do believe they can sometimes build two before they decide which one to use! Fingers crossed :-D

Doug – Oh… sorry to hear that. Perhaps you could get one a pair yet – a young pair perhaps? I had wondered when I saw no new footage from your box. Our rooster is leaving droppings in our box I hope someone cleans them up soon! There are also a few feathers on the floor. For fear of making you even more gutted you might want to look at Jamie Cooper’s Nestbox he has some shuffling going on there. Sorry, great clear images from his Nestbox ;-D

Jane – Thanks to you for jolting me into a post. Things have been busy here. I see you have also been busy with your site – it’s looking great and I am very interested in your streaming cam too. What a great opportunity to share the action with your foxes – I’m looking forward to that too! Your photos and videos of your local area are great. I have thoughts on something for my area too – just need more hours in the day! Great to hear you’ve been seeing the birds building nests. I love the see the blackbirds collect all sorts for their nests – they come down to my pond for wet material. Nature is great to watch isn't it :-D

Just wonderful, Shirl. I like the music too. I wouldn't get any work done if we had this setup, I would just want to watch the activity in the nestbox! Can't wait to see what comes next! Thanks for sharing this.

Frances – I am glad you liked it! Glad you liked the music too. It is very difficult not to get drawn into this!! I won’t tell you anymore for the moment except that I am waiting to see a particular piece of action happen during the day :-D

Lisa – Yes it is, especially when I am hearing about it in gardens in England. I am so glad the music went down well – I took ages picking this one :-D

Cheryl – You are most welcome! Oh… I hope I have much more to show your grandchildren in future months and if I haven’t got any action to share I will find some other links for everyone. It is wonderful to be able to see this action from a Nestbox :-D

OSPREY WEBCAM Loch of Lowes

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BLUE TIT NESTBOX DIARY 2010

Six eggs, two attentive parents, hundreds of caterpillars, insects & live mealworms. Result… six chicks successfully fledge! Click on photo link above to follow their story through chat, photos & video.

WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I?

My small garden is in Perthshire, Scotland. I don’t have salmon in my pond, red deer in my borders, ospreys nesting in my acers or red squirrels at my peanut feeders! Nor do I have the world’s highest hedge, paths exciting enough for the serious cyclist and enough of a lawn for golf! However, Perthshire does plus many beautiful gardens too… follow the photo link above to see :-)